Albany, NY- Longtime tenant advocate and rent-stabilized tenant, Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal (D/WF-Manhattan) today heralded the announcement of a historic two-house agreement on a package of affordable housing bills that will provide tenants statewide with unprecedented rent protections.

Chief among the legislation included in the final package, and long touted as the holy grail of rent reform and tenant protection, is the bill to repeal vacancy deregulation, which Assemblymember Rosenthal first introduced in 2009. In addition, the package also includes Assemblymember Rosenthal’s bill to protect vulnerable rent-controlled tenants from arbitrary 7.5% biannual rent increases and eliminate the fuel pass along, which she also introduced back in 2009.

“Today after decades of injustice, the tables have finally turned in favor of millions of tenants across New York State. For far too long, big real estate pulled the strings in Albany, and tenants were left unprotected against overreach by unscrupulous landlords, defenseless against big real estate and the myriad incentives for harassment and eviction,” said Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal. “After decades of fighting, we have a package of housing bills reflective of the fact that housing units are not data points or revenue streams, but people’s homes, and New York has a responsibility to protect and preserve them.”

Vacancy deregulation has been the single largest driver of the loss of affordable housing. It has provided landlords with a perverse incentive to harass their rent-regulated into leaving so that they can deregulate the unit and charge a high, market rate rent. Vacancy deregulation allows a landlord to raise the rent of a rent-regulated unit by making improvements and applying a percentage of the cost of those improvements to the rent. This, along with the vacancy bonus, has contributed to untold suffering for rent-stabilized tenants.

“Rent-controlled tenants are among the most vulnerable tenants citywide,” said Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal. “Rent-controlled tenants are usually senior citizens who live on very low, fixed incomes yet pay ridiculously high rent increases because of an anachronism in state law. Often overlooked, I have fought alongside these ferocious tenants for years to end the MBR and fuel pass-along system. Relief is finally in sight.”

Rent increases for rent-controlled tenants have been calculated using the statutorily required maximum base rent (MBR) formula, a complicated calculation which has resulted in automatic, biannual 7.5% rent increases. As a result, rent-controlled tenants often pay rents that are higher than their rent-stabilized counterparts. The package includes Assemblymember Rosenthal’s bill that would calculate rent increases by taking the average of the previous five years rent increases for one-year lease renewals voted on by the New York City Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) as the annual increase for rent-controlled tenants. The bill will also eliminate the fuel pass along charge, which has meant that rent-controlled tenants have been charged twice for heating fuel.

In addition to repealing vacancy deregulation and reforming rent control, the package of bills also included Assemblymember Rosenthal’s bills to cap rental security deposits to one month’s rent and to ban the use of the tenant blacklist, which allows landlords to discriminate against tenants who have previously been in housing court.

In addition, the package:

• Makes rent regulation permanent;
• Reforms the Major Capital Improvement (MCI) rent increase system by reducing the percentage landlords can charge tenants from 6% to 2%, extending the amortization period and eliminating the MCI after 30 years;
• Reforms Individual Apartment Improvements (IAI) rent increases by capping the amount of IAI spending at $15,000 over 15 years and limiting the number of IAI to three in 15 years;
• Repeals high-income deregulation, which allowed landlords to remove a unit from regulation when the rent hit the vacancy limit and the tenant’s income surpassed $200,00 or higher for immediately previous two consecutive years;
• Reforms the owner occupancy rule, which allowed landlords take over occupancy of multiple units if they or a family member planned to live in the unit;
• Extends the four-year look back rule allowing tenants to go back six years to determine their legal base rent;
• Ensures that rent-stabilized units that are rented by a non-profit organization, often to provide housing to formerly homeless individuals, remain regulated;
• Makes preferential rent the base rent for renewal leases during the tenancy;
• Prohibits the New York City Rent Guidelines Board from issuing class-specific rent increases;
• Repeals the vacancy bonus, which provided landlords with a 20% rent bonus when a rent-regulated unit became vacant,
• Allows localities to opt in to rent regulation;
• Expands protections for rent-regulated tenants during coop/condo conversions;
• Requires the New York State Department of Housing and Community Renewal to produce an annual report on the state of rent administration and tenant protection.

“I introduced the bills to repeal vacancy decontrol and reform rent control in 2009, and today, after decades of fighting to strengthen the rent laws, we tenants can take a breath and rejoice. Tens of thousands of New Yorkers have been forced from their homes over preceding decades, at the hands of broken rent laws, but now tenants are back in the driver’s seat. Our work is not done, but the power imbalance that has so long silenced the cries of tenants, has at long last been tilted back toward an equilibrium point,” said Assemblymemer Linda B. Rosenthal.

Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal is the Chair of the Committee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse. She represents the 67^thAssembly district, which includes the Upper West Side and parts of the Clinton/ Hell’s Kitchen neighborhoods in Manhattan.